Syndication:

Another new year, another set of goals. Over the past few years I have set goals (2010, 2011, 2012) and done retrospectives at the end of the year (2010, 2011, 2012). This year already has a number of big changes in the pipeline but I’m trying to introduce a few other changes with the goals I am setting.

Professional

Work local more – If you’ve been reading my blog the past year and a half you’ve probably heard me write that my new role as Premier Field Engineer with Microsoft has me traveling quite a bit (as evidenced by me hitting platinum status on Delta and Marriott last year). There are some changes at work which have me traveling less but I’m still away from home at least a few weeks a month. I am working towards doing more local and remote (from home) work. With my upcoming wedding I would like to be home more as spending time with friends and family is an important part of my life.

Mentor / Mentee – Over the past 5-10 years I have had a few official and unofficial mentors whether through work, social groups, or otherwise. I currently have two mentors through work. I would like to build upon those relationships and also look for opportunities of becoming a mentor (not necessarily through work) for someone else. The latter may not happen this year but I would like to start laying the foundation for that.

Blogging – I plan to continue blogging as I have been for the past almost 4 years now. I intend to blog at least 20 posts throughout the year.

Personal

Get married – This Oct my fiancé Sarah and I will be tying the knot. I’m very happy and excited to be getting married as it opens a completely new chapter of our lives together.

Stay Fit – Yes I included this last year and if you read my last retrospective I did lose 10+ pounds last year. With the upcoming wedding in Oct Sarah and I both have goals to lose a little more for this year. For me I am aiming to lose another 13 pounds by Oct and 15 total by the end of year. I’m planning to join a gym and have already bought a FitBit to track steps / sleep patterns / weight. I’m also continuing to eat healthier (most times) and practice portion control.

Read Books – Purchasing a Kindle over a year ago got me reading more frequently. Now with my Surface RT I’m able to read easily on a device I travel with all the time. Win-win situation. This year I plan to read at least 5 books for the year. I was very happy to find my local library lends e-books and I’ve already started with Daemon by Daniel Suarez which is hard to put down. I’m also planning to track my books and post those as recommendations later similar to others (Todd Klindt’s book recommendations).

Conclusion

I like the idea of managing things in groups of threes (which I picked up from 30 Days of Results) hence 3 personal and 3 work goals for the year. There are a few smaller goals I have that are targeted for shorter term timeframes as well. This year is looking to be another good year and I’m eager to tackle the challenges and opportunities that come.

On a side note, when I first started posting my goals in 2010 I called out a close friend Sean McDonough to also post his goals online. As it turns out this year Sean did finally post his goals and join the bandwagon. Thanks for carrying on the torch Sean. Since Sean posted his I’m going to call out a few of my coworkers in hopes they will also post their goals for the year: Josh Gavant and Ashley McGlone.

Feedback

I like this man. Something about putting it up and out there. I create these kinds of lists for myself every year as well, particularly separating them out by personal and professional.

One thing I do as a visual exercise is arrange each of the list items in a tag-cloud type format. Some larger and bolder than others. I used to arrange them by number/priority, but something about the bigger goals being visually bigger gave me some strange comfort and connection to the effort as a whole.

I saw all my efforts as a whole, only with some as being strong with emphasis... the other way I guess subconsciously I was tempted to look at them as a sequential todo list.